Saint Lucia's Coup
|- ! colspan="2" |Belligerents |- |'Liberal Goverment:' Spain Gobierno Autónomo Santa Lucia Townhall |'Nacionalist:' FARCOM Partido Nacionalista |- ! colspan="2" |Commanders and leaders |- |José Velez Raymondo Perez José Joan Nicholas Nicolás Obtusiano Alejandro Marfú |Paul Fernando Juan Luis Mastel Perez Marteles |} The coup d'état of 2004, also known as 28J was a successful coup that led to a fairly long-lasting war that have a leght of nearly four years. The central episodes were the assault and taking of hostages in the municipality of Santa Lucia by 350 armed soldiers, led by Paul Fernando, occurred during a plenary session of the City Council as well as the military occupation of Vecindario by the FARCOM. The coup d'état of 2004 is closely related to the events experienced during the takeover of Antonio Suarez, the bad environmental and immigrant policies, the waste of subsidies for useless works and as a way to eliminate the incipient feminist wave. Discomfort in the army The first symptoms of discomfort in the army appeared in March 2003 on the occasion of the approval of the general budgets, which included the deviation of 110 million euros for the Communist Party and Feministas. Early resigned the Minister of the Canarian Navy and the Superior Council of the Army issued a note in which it expressed its disagreement with the budget, although it complied. In January of 2004, Paul Fernando managed to be the head of the army in the canary area, five months before the coup d'état. On February 27, 2004, The first symptoms of an economic crisis and the deviation of budgets for a work of public pools in Santa Lucia, which infuriated the army, and seeing the instability of this municipality in particular, decided to attack it. Government Crisis The growing weakness of the municipality of Santa Lucia, wounded by corruption and the little help of the council, which also went through problems made the military look at this town hall and create a republic to your liking with the help of the second most popular party in the municipality,The Nationalist Party. Incidents chronology At two o'clock on the afternoon of July 28, 2004, the town hall of Santa Lucia began to decide on cultural plans. At 3:33 pm, a group of 350 soldiers who traveled in stolen public buses and private cars according to the plan outlined and quickly took the plenary room, hitting some officials who were rebuking them. Then Paul Fernando attacked the councilman of culture and several soldiers he was beaten, another official was wounded in the leg with an iron bar, Paul got in front with his pistol and gave a shot in the air very close to Antonio Suarez, the mayor, followed, some soldiers fired into the air, causing a lot of dust coming from the roof. Then the soldiers advanced and violently took those present there, striking some brutally,At 4 o'clock, several soldiers left and began firing at the civil guard that was surrounding the outside, retiring shortly after the superiority in arms, two soldiers hoisted a great Francoist flag on the roof of the town hall Around 5:35 pm, the national guard and the army that was not rebelling had not yet arrived. Shortly after the hostages were taken from the town hall and this was set on fire with accelerators and remnants of furniture. At 18:40 hours, the military delegation was organized and marched down the avenue of the Canary Islands, with two tanks and 550 men, several who had joined, in addition, many of Vecindario joined them, very dissatisfied, but the majority decided shelter in their houses, the stores closed and those that did not, were looted and destroyed by the soldiers,That night is remembered as "the night of the broken shops", because more than 20 shops were destroyed. Occupation of Vecindario Shortly after the entrance and destruction of the City Council, the minority of the inhabitants themselves joined the army, forming an estimated force of 3,800 men, to which they were armed. In addition to fifty tanks, to the streets. The troops were deployed from the Atlantico Norte shopping center to the athletic stadium in the center of the city, where they pointed to the most important buildings, such as Bingo or Mercacentro. The occupation, which received the name of Operation Avenida, was key for other towns to join. Around seven o'clock in the afternoon, shots were fired between the military and several national guards, a total of 24 people died on both sides, the national guard retiring shortly afterwards. That night the army continued preparing to take the most important city in the municipality and Paul continued to contact several municipalities to join him, but only Aguimes was favorable but without direct support. About five hours after the assault on the City Council, Juan Luiz told him Paul Fernando who: Santa Lucia, Sardine, Cross of Arinaga and Temisas had revolted and supported the appointment of Paul Fernando as president of the Government of the newly proclaimed republic.Soon after there were shootings and attacks between neighbors and military, dying an undetermined number of people.Many cars of the neighbors that had been revealed, caused terror in nearby towns that had not revealed themselves as Juan Grande, Arinaga and Aldea Blanca, but struggles occurred in the revolted towns.Throughout the night, the shootings did not cease. End of Vecindario Capture Towards 7:00 in the morning, almost all neighborhoods had been fenced and the city isolated from the rest, while the races continued in the newly rebellious areas. On the other hand, despite the anger of the Spanish Government and the Canaries, they did not dare to intervene at the moment, because the military threatened to kill the civilians, to control the population that was against the army, many of the houses were looted and the Bingo was burned in several areas, seeing these fires from very far away.At noon, the landfill of Juan Grande was captured and set on fire, causing a toxic cloud of smoke that forced the evacuation of areas of Maspalomas. Begining of the war As soon as we knew the victory of the Nationalists in the neighborhood and the beginning of support in other towns provoked the fear of the military command of the command of the Canary Islands, also began a massive flight of tourists, beset by the incident of the landfill, leaving the island a third the next day, seriously damaging the economy of the island, on July 29 at six in the afternoon, an explosive device was detonated in Terminal 2 of Gando Airport, killing 32 people. The same day, the army already had 10200 approximately, and were dedicated to looting the military base of gando, aided by infiltrators, taking advantage of the confucion of the attack, done this they attacked Arinaga with weapons, causing great destruction, although only two deaths were recorded, since the civilians who were against they surrendered and were taken hostages in the church square of Arinaga.Juan Grande was also attacked and the prison of the same name. They had already met 8 tanks of war and more than 80 military vehicles, which to be fed, took the gas stations of Texaco, Repsol and Shell, having enough fuel to continue the offensives.The next offensive took place at the Endesa power plant at night, knowing the great importance, since it feeds electricity and purified water to the southern half of the island, the security guards were killed and the employees taken hostage. we proceeded to cut the supply of electricity and water to all areas that were not taken by the nationalists. This showed a lot of cunning, since there were severe cuts of electricity and water in the southern half of the island, done this, the plant was surrounded with the threat of flying it through the air if Endesa did not stop sending oil by sea twice a week, the employees were sent to Vecindario and all the facilities were controlled by the army July 30 dawns with a lot of smoke caused by small fires throughout the southeast. Well in the morning, King Juan Carlos and Zapatero threaten the military with surrender, or a war will be imminent, they will not retract and a military offensive will take place. plan for the southeast This same day, clashes between civilians and soldiers continue, the church of Vecindario is destroyed as it would repress a homemade bomb that killed two soldiers, in addition that the Mayor is killed mid-morning, two shots in the head, and the councilor As a novelty, Aguimes was occupied by the Spanish military without warning, which caused brutal confrontations with civilians, which supported more the nationalists, on this day the triangle had already been occupied. Neighborhood and areas of the revolted towns, in addition the rebellious civilians set fire to two industrial polygons in the polygon of Arinaga, the companies installed there leave everything and flee, shortly after they begin to be looted.In the peninsula begin to see fervent support from the neo-Nazis, those who promise to go to fight to Gran Canaria for the creation of the new state, so they get down to work and begin to take flights to Gando without the government have time to react, in total they arrive in two days, about 5000 fascists and nationalists. August On the morning of August 1, the fascists from the peninsula met at the Repsol roundabout, being armed with sub-machine guns immediately, cleaning the streets of rebels and creating a siege of the new republic in the following days, threatening that they would kill the hostages, which surely were more than 2500 if the Spanish army dared to cross it, so in the following days the war was stagnant, since neither side dared to take a military offensive, which allowed Nationalists organize and arrived more fascist from the peninsula, although less, it also seems that in the peninsula is planning a large-scale attack, but no plans are made, due to political opposition, the rebels are fed by tap water and food that the Spanish army sends them, thinking that it is being given to the hostages, but these are really dying of hunger and the nationalists are the ones who actually eat, also of the food of the houses sacked Europa does not know how to react to this, and is impressed by the organization and strength of the rebels, having taken large areas in five days, also helped by an exceptional military man like Paul Fernando and the extortions that have prevented a military response effective against the rebels September After a month of stagnation due to the various exertions and encirclement, the nationalists advance through the ravine of Tirajana towards the town of Santa Lucia, to control the last free town of the municipality and have it entirely under their control, which is achieved very easily, this being a surprise attack, On September 8 there is the battle of Balillo and the crossing of Arinaga, between the Spanish army and a division of 1,200 rebel soldiers, no progress made any notable progress between both sides, producing about 300 deaths, but the rebels get entrenched in the crossing of Arinaga, occupying some houses to organize. On September 25, another division of 3000 soldiers crosses Juan Grande and heads south to occupy the almost deserted city of Maspalomas, being also that the enemies did not expect this in any way, occupying it with little resistance in two days, producing fires and looting tourist establishments, producing With an incredible amount of smoke, some hotels are also detonated as mere revenge, like the Riu, for their comments in the media about the nationalists. Soon after, the water and electricity supply in this area was established, becoming the center of operations from the south. October While in the north, the fronts are stagnant, in the south there are great advances and victories as in the battle of Pajar and the battle of Mogan, so the area controlled by the nationalists increases enormously in size November and December Here occurs the most important offensive, the one that almost 8000 nationalists advance parallel to the coast from November 18 to 20, conquering the Gando Airport, thus preventing that Spain will not be able to agree to send more troops, in addition they get access to a fleet of 24 planes, so that same day there were two terrorist attacks, which nobody imagined, one to the Palmas de Gran Canaria and the other to the Port of La Luz, producing more than 1,500 victims and unleashing the panic in the whole city, producing massive transfers to safer populations in the interior of the island, due to the confusion, the nationalist army advances in an incredible way and capture, Aguimes, Ingenio and Telde in less than a month, although Europe and NATO could have done something, they were very busy with Iraq and the economic crisis, for which the nationalists went to the northern slope, for the peak of the Nieves, brutally attacking villages of the North of the island, as of December 20, the nationalists occupied Two thirds of the island, at this point already had an army of 32000 people, Bombing Arucas with two combat aircraft from the airport made the Palmas surrender, only remaining resistance in isolated areas Next years and treaty During the following two years, conflicts of neighbors against, especially in Las Palmas continued to be intense and bloody until March 14, 2008, in which the sardine treaty allowed the existence of free states in Gran Canarias loyal to Spain and So the war ended.But the tensions continued between the two parts until the day of today. Category:Santa Lucia's Coup Category:Spain